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Like a fish needs a bicycle
Further to the ongoing conversation about whether the battle for gender equality is all done and dusted, you might want to read this depressing article about being a female cyclist.
For what it's worth, my own experience is that most of the verbal abuse I get on a bike these days seems (insofar as I can decode the grunting and hooting of overexcited primates) to be aimed more at cyclists than women. Though I guess I might not get so much of that if I was/looked male -- but that's impossible for me to tell, I have no plausible way of pretending to be male while cycling.
(To be fair, I should also confess that I do my own fair share of shouting, but only at idiots who are actively endangering my life by flagrantly disregarding the rules of the road -- and idiots come in all shapes/sizes/genders/vehicles.)
On the positive side, there is some evidence to suggest that drivers give female cyclists more room when overtaking them. Though now I wonder whether (as the researcher hints) that's because they think female cyclists are more likely to behave unpredictably, or just because it's so much harder to look up someone's skirt when they're disappearing under the wheels of your white van. :-/
For what it's worth, my own experience is that most of the verbal abuse I get on a bike these days seems (insofar as I can decode the grunting and hooting of overexcited primates) to be aimed more at cyclists than women. Though I guess I might not get so much of that if I was/looked male -- but that's impossible for me to tell, I have no plausible way of pretending to be male while cycling.
(To be fair, I should also confess that I do my own fair share of shouting, but only at idiots who are actively endangering my life by flagrantly disregarding the rules of the road -- and idiots come in all shapes/sizes/genders/vehicles.)
On the positive side, there is some evidence to suggest that drivers give female cyclists more room when overtaking them. Though now I wonder whether (as the researcher hints) that's because they think female cyclists are more likely to behave unpredictably, or just because it's so much harder to look up someone's skirt when they're disappearing under the wheels of your white van. :-/
no subject
Er, though, it occurs to me it is probably very different in London as you'd be cycling on ten-lane roads with no cycle lanes and very few other cyclists but thousands of taxis and buses. So maybe pedestrian-mutation powers are not as effective there. :-( And taking photos of a person or a car would probably get you arrested in London.
But also, y'know, if it was the sort of situation that required running away and hiding in a place that bikes couldn't go, I'd just drop the bike and run. Preferably shoving the bike into the path of the person chasing me first. Bikes are replaceable.
no subject
(But then a friend said recently recently that one of the reasons she doesn't go to straight clubs is because she doesn't want to have to deal with getting her bum grabbed and her boobs stared at, to which my (unsaid) response was kind of like '!!! But! We can't just NOT GO TO PLACES and NOT DO STUFF cos of IDIOT MENS!' so I'm annoyed with myself for being so fearty about cycling. I don't (and won't) drive either, for slightly similar reasons, but at the moment I live a very walkable life so it works out fine for me. If things change I'm going to have to muster myself some confidence pretty quickly)
no subject
Roads are perhaps a bit busier in some cases but I can't think of *many* situations in which "hop onto pavement and Be Elsewhere" wouldn't work out. Maybe if cycling down one of the bits of the A4 (? big westbound road, anyway) which has railings. (Railings make me irritable anyway.)
But yes, agreed with all of this in re tactics in difficult situations.